Proposed waste processing plant site in East Delhi flooded

Land was allotted to the civic body by the DDA in March. The Central Pollution Control Board and National Environmental Engineering Institute have reportedly cleared the site as suitable for waste management use.

Environmental activists wrote to Delhi L-G Anil Baijal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Thursday demanding that the East Corporation’s proposed site for a waste processing plant be scrapped as the area was inundated after flooding. The project involves creating a waste processing plant on 42.5 acres in North East Delhi’s Ghonda Gujran.

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Land was allotted to the civic body by the DDA in March. The Central Pollution Control Board and National Environmental Engineering Institute have reportedly cleared the site as suitable for waste management use.

Manoj Misra, convenor of the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan, who wrote the letter, said, “An allotment by the DDA was made based on the CPCB’s findings… that the site in question is not in the floodplains, which the river itself has disproved.”

Misra added that the National Green Tribunal, in a January 2015 order, said construction cannot be done in Zone O, or the river zone, in Delhi. A DDA official admitted that the site falls in Zone O but is not on the floodplains. He added that construction is allowed in certain areas of the zone and that an area of 150 metres from the river bank is left undisturbed.

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Tarun Kapoor, DDA vice-chairman, added, “This land is okay for construction, but we have asked EDMC to take further relevant permissions from appropriate authorities.”

A senior EDMC official said, “The site is not on the floodplains. In any case, we would never do any construction on the plains. We will take precautionary measures, such as building bunds, to protect the processing plant in case the river floods in the future.”